The Shattered Lands

As requested I am writing to fill you in on the events surrounding the reinstatement of Sovereign Aurata of the Oncilla, and the Xelona group. You remember that as of my last post Aurata was with the Xelona group at the People’s Guild headquarters. It did not take long for the Bloodhorns to find her, as they had bloodhounds. The Crystalborn was able to secret the ward away while the others dealt with the Bloodhorns. The result was a good deal of destruction and mayham. From what I have been able to piece together the Bloodhorns made two attacks on the People’s Guild. The end result of both attacks, partially due to Prince Zipp’s use of fire magic, was the death of all the Bloodhorns who attacked and the complete distruction of the People’s Guild building.

I understand at some point in that evening, perhaps between attacks, Zaki Elopar of the Taguan contacted Zipp in an attempt to use his position as the heir of house Quade as a bargaining chip to claim Aurata. Zipp did in fact consider a compromise of allowing Aurata a nice quiet life in the Quade court, but Aurata herself refused this offer. Zipp, as we hoped, sided with Aurata against Elopar. It was after this refusal that the second attack on the People’s Guild happened, the one which left the building a blaze.

Thankfully during this conflagration Aurata was with Mystral in another location. By the conflagration Travok and Scinnit had rejoined the group, having trekked through a part of the Xelona catacombs. Once the group met up again they opted for taking Aurata down to an abandoned mausoleum in the catacombs. There they waited for several days. I understand that the lizardfolk spent part of that time training a cavefisher.

The group were forced to move when the facedancer, hired as we now know by Elopar, discovered their hiding place. We sent ███████ to assist with the facedancer, where she discovered that in fact the group had dealt with the threat. She lead them to one of our strongholds where Trin explained that the Banther dreadnaught was not coming. He helped them to find the March Hare at the underdock. We had not expected to introduce the group to this facility quite yet, but there simply was no other option.

The March Hare left as quickly as it could. We began prepping the Draconia as well, though she was in need of supplies and repairs after the █████████ incident. As I understand the events, the March Hare made it to Ilynxal without much issue to find a Taguan baracade. Using a combination of magic and speed the March Hare ran the blockade, nearly crashing into the skydocks. There was some damage to the port side buildings, but nothing too bad.

The group introduced Aurata to Duke Reager. There they recuperated and were rewarded for their service with some special artifacts we asked Reager to supply. Aurata surprised us by asking that the Xelona group assist her in the battle to reclaim her throne. They readily agreed and began planning with Duke Reager. Zipp contacted his mother, the Countess Melisande to formally ask for house Quade’s aid on behalf of house Oncilla. The Countess readily agreed and sent the 7th Quade fleet with a contingent of Quade marines on board to assist Aurata. Along with the Banther fleet and troops the group was large enough to effectively deal with Akiton and his supporters.

The tactics the group used were surprisingly effective. Zipp landed his marines to the West of the city, leading them through the swamps to the West gate. There he had his fleet target the castle to distract Akiton’s troops and then made his way into the town. There they linked up with some of the Knights of the Fang who were still loyal and then stormed the castle. The Xelona group were most effective in this battle. They acted as the vanguard of the force, pushing through a number of positions until they made it to the castle.

It was in the castle that the distinguished themselves the most. There they discovered Akiton’s demonic allies were waiting. Though the battles were difficult they somehow managed to come through each time, including the final battle with Akiton. Their battle prowess saved many lives by stopping the bulk of the demons before the regular troops could find them. Indeed, the worst casualties were against a small demonic force that the Xelona group missed as they sought Akiton.

After the dust settled Akiton was dead, his few loyal followers imprison, and the Xelona group knighted and named Heroes of the Fragment. They have the eternal good will of the Oncilla and Soverign Aurata. She has also begun to ally her house more closely with House Quade, as well as Banther and Bojan. Her freidship with two rogue houses will not endear her to the Emperor, but the story of the young girl finding allies in the unlikely of places and defeating a demon worshiper has already become a popular topic for balladeers even on the Imperial City.

At this point Trin and I decided that it was time to enlighten the Xelona group (they really do need to come up with a name) as to the nature of our enterprise. The Draconia was repaired, so we accompanied Havlock to retrieve our new heroes. There we explained the nature of the Tarresque Claw, as much as we were able, and the foe which we oppose. Aestus was the only one of the group to have serious reservations about our order. I expect he has heard one too many of those rumors the balladeers like to spread. Still, he has opted to remain with the group and let the Claw’s actions sway him. As I write this we have just left the Xelona group at Braggart Hall, their new base of operations in Xelona. Presently we have no operations for them, so they are spending the time setting up the Hall and dealing with personal issues.

Though we were forced to rely on this group faster than we anticipated, I believe they will be a potent addition to our organization. They have proved resourceful, and willing to take the actions needed to get the job done, and done right. They have shown that the laws of the land are not as important as the well being of the people. In the end, only time can tell if we made the right decision bringing this group into the fold.

A letter

Dear █████████
My apologies for not writing sooner. The events with the Oncilla, as you know, have taken a great deal of our time. I am sure you are quite anxious for an update. Our ward is now under the protection of the new team we have assembled. I trust these five individuals as they have yet to fail. You know about the successful trip into the City of the Orphiem and they did bring the one journal we are after. You also know they took the job from the Orbiculum to track down the half-orc named Trudy and their progress up until they landed on Quenya. I will do my best to recount what happened after that until they arrived back on Xelona.

They discovered it was a day journey to the temple that Trudy was headed to. I do not have all the details, but they did run into some trouble there, some meddlesome pixies and I believe trolls. Unfortunately they were late and Trudy had left see visit her brother on Bagrash, Seedo to be exact. All of the group, save the dwarf, ended up in a bar where they were attempting to gain information. In this process both the lizardfolk and the tiefling had shots of orc-draught and were incapacitated. About this time the half-elf slipped up and revealed to the half-orcs in the bar she was a Crystalborn. With the recent 50,000 ₴ bounty for a live Crystalborn, the patrons thought they might capitalize on this opportunity. Thankfully the hodekin we had sent to keep an eye out had made it to the bar in time to intervene.

With the help of the hodekin the group was able to learn, from Trudy’s brother I believe, that she was heading trait for Morelia on Serin where, as you know, Trudy was to meet up with our Bojan contact. Trudy had enough information to know that she was being hunted, so when the group arrived in Morelia and inquired about Trudy the Bojan guards escorted them all in to meet directly with the Marquise d’ Bojan. There, after she was certain our group was not in fact interested in killing or arresting Trudy, she allowed them to talk with Trudy. There they learned about Jedidiah’s indiscretions and his possible connection to the Red Shadow. The Marquise showed them the letter that you now have in your possession. The team took the incriminating evidence against Jedidiah and turned it over to the Dragon Knights, who have arrested Jedidiah and begun the process of auditing his accounts.

Partially due to their success, and partially due to the fact they are relevantly unknown I asked Trin to use them to protect our ward while she is in Xelona. My contacts right now tell me that the group has picked up the ward. They split up, one group using magic to make the hodekin look like the ward. My contacts believe this group headed to a house in the Flower Garden. The other two have the ward and returned with her to the headquarters of the People’s Guild. That is the last piece of information I have on them. I know there are several units of Bloodhorns out looking for her. At least one has a bloodhound. One of my contacts also believes that Akinon may have hired a Facedancer to find her. We do not yet know. That would, of course, facilitate a change in tactics. The queen is here, and she will move to intercede should we need her. I hope to have more information soon.
Cordially,
████████
Bishop, Xelona

From Zipp's Journal

Well… we finally went off to find Trudy and I must say that I don’t really have a clue as to where to begin. I don’t mean with the writings I mean with finding this girl. We have landed on the city where she was last seen but it’s clear that no one here wants to help us find her.

The logical place to begin was the half orc tavern in town so that’s where we went. The barkeep appeared to be familiar with Trudy but refused to give any useful information. After an attempt or two at bribery he soon called the police and threw us out… How my mother gets her information is beyond me… it might be easier with her though as she is a beautiful woman and I’m just a guy… a thought for another time. I attempted to stake out the bar but no sign of Trudy was there.

It quickly became obvious that Trudy was no longer in the city and we received a tip in the general direction in which she last went. Our half-elf seems to have a strange connection with her even though we’ve never her. She is determined that Trudy is an innocent woman but I find it hard to imagine that an innocent woman has this large of a bounty on her head. Regardless I have agreed that we won’t simply kill her on sight but no matter the matter we need to find her as quickly as possible so that we may attempt to prove her innocence or as I hope bringing her to justice.

We bounced around from town to town until we realized that Trudy was yet again a couple of days ahead of us and on a new fragment. We boarded our ship and left to find her. While in the air we encountered some poor pirates… those poor bastards. They attempted to steal our crystals and leave us stranded but the opposite quickly happened. I attempted to use my fire magic to set their sails ablaze so that way we could quickly outsail them. My other companions took to the battle to try and give our crew a fighting chance. The half-elf boarded their other ship but didn’t appear to do much fighting… I’m still not sure what exactly she did but she certainly left them useless whatever she did.

We have now landed on Quenya in the search of Trudy… where exactly we go from here is completely unknown. I must be honest in that I am quickly losing interest in hunting this half-orc. Our half-elf has become more and more determined to prove her innocence even though we have zero evidence to support this claim. Granted I have no evidence that she is evil but it is my duty to do a job that has been given to me. It would not be wise to burn these bridges so soon before I have returned home.

When we left the dungeon with out booty we returned to the airship and traveled back to Xelona. I have no trust in this band, after Szinnit held me down while the dwarf beat me unconscious. A truly honorable dwarf indeed, assaulting a restrained, compliant girl.

The others don’t even seem to think their treatment of me was a problem. The only one who did not participate in my attack was the Tiefling, who seems to be the best of the three. Szinnit may be excused from some of his behaviors for not understanding how to act in company (although how he has lived so long and does not know how to behave around other species baffles me). The dwarf’s behavior is inexcusable.

I knew the dwarf only wanted whatever he could sell from this adventure, which proved true once we got back to Xelona, where he sold what he could then went to a gambling hall to try and lose his earnings. This only reinforced to me that my “dishonorable” action was only in claiming my share of the earnings, albeit before the adventure was finished. But I have no lust for treasure, and magical items are only of worth to me in that I can use their magic, which is what I did. The fact that the dwarf assaulted a half-elf for using the magic in an elvish helmet rather than letting him make profit from selling it only shows his greedy character.

I took precautionary measures to not be assaulted by Szinnit or the dwarf again, so I spent the entirety of the trip back in my hawk form. I did of course inform the captain of my shape-shifting ability, and that I would be up on top of the sails if I was needed.

Upon reflection, it may have been an overreaction based on fear from the rest of the group (although I doubt the dwarf would ever admit it) that led them to attack me. My power is not one that is widely known, and those who do know about it are secretive in their knowledge of it either because they are protecting someone, or hunting someone. People fear what they do not understand, and I am sure that none of the rest understand what I can – and cannot – do. It might also be that magical items are worth more to those who can use them, thus prompting some of their violence. Still, perhaps a discussion and not a fist would have been advisable.

Once back in Xelona (and after breakfast, much to the chagrin of the dwarf and Szinnit) we handed over the Bag of Holding and all of the journals we found in the dungeon. Zipp wanted to argue about the wording of the original agreement, but in the end handed over all of the journals. I’m sure he only wanted to sell or destroy as many as he could, hoping only a particular journal was actually desired.

The rest divvied up the magical items that we found in the dungeon. Zipp got a pearl that allows him to carry an extra spell, and a flaming sword, Szinnit got a magical staff with truly impressive and qualities that seemed like they would be quite useful to everyone in the party but me. The staff needed to be attuned to the user by a Druid, so Szinnit went in search of a druid, and upon finding one, gave the druid the staff for free, I do not understand Szinnit, but at least he did not try to haggle for the thing. The dwarf got some magic armor, but he of course sold it for the money.

Zipp and I had the assortment of potions that we found in the dungeon identified. Most of them sound as though they would be useful to the rest of the party. Two of them are useful only to me, which was a pleasant surprise. There are two magical poisons, which I will be keeping on hand for when I need a refill on my Spellfire. Zipp entrusted the rest of the vials to me to carry, along with my poisons. Of all of the band, he is the only one who seems to trust me, and he is certainly the only one I trust.

We received another assignment from our employer when we completed our previous task. This time we will become bounty hunters, chasing down a murder wanted dead or alive. Other than being a vicious killer the employer mentioned she was a half-orc and a capable warrior, but I doubt that brute strength and luck alone has kept them from capture so far.

As we are using the same airship this trip as we did for the last one, we are looking to make heavy use of them for this mission, and a good relationship with an airship will be highly useful in the future, I decided to barter with them for my services. I revealed to the captain, the shard gnome in charge of the engine, and a Wizard crew member my particular abilities. In exchange for a boon (as yet unnamed) I will be refilling one shard every time I travel on the March Hare, allowing that I have the time and the necessary Spellfire.

Honor Driven

After returning to the city from what appeared to be the bottom of this dungeon, where a voice spoke inside my head, I asked Zipp why he was so afraid of the voice. He replied that it was a demon and it was against his god. I thought it a bit odd that he was so focused on burning the demon books and less focused on burning the actual demon. At the speed he was running after he heard the voice I assumed he knew something we didn’t or he was just running much like the scared children do back home. Whatever it was I now know it is there and if it is truly evil I am sworn by honor and justice to vanquish it. That being said I am going back down with or without Zipp. Luckily Szinnit also is going back down so I won’t have to face whatever it is alone. After Mistral twisted a few words in our favor Zipp decided to go back down with some ridiculous condition about burning books. If you ask me we should throw them all in the bag and demand a higher price from the employer.

After Zipp was convinced we all decided that starting on level 2 and working down was the best plan. After many searches for traps we managed to get through most of level 2. This level sparked my interest because it was all smithing and magical weapons. We came to a room that I assumed the place where the previous resident stored his favored weapons as the room was filled with weapon and armor racks. After entering the room first some of the straw on the walls started coming alive and attacking us. These were just a nuisance and I really wished that I could fully explore this level without being interrupted. The rest of the group seemed to handle these creatures well enough but it could have been better. I think Zipp has thrown everyone off by talk of demons and something about the apocalypse if we go back down there.
After we dispatched these straw animations we finally got to look around this room. Sadly most of the weapons here were either ruined or made by a blacksmith that clearly wasn’t dwarven, as the quality was so bad that I wasn’t sure if the metal could even cut rope. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Mistral walking around just touching objects. I took a close look and she had been doing this to all the items in the room made clear by fresh finger marks in the thousands of years’ worth of dust. The whole group started to notice and Zipp as always was first to express his concern. After a short conversation Mistral touched a dagger and purple energy went from the weapon into her hand. This really sparked the whole group’s attention. After that Mistral insisted that she touched everything in every room before we even got a chance to inspect any of the items. This really started to aggravate me as whatever she did to that dagger she was trying to do to other items.

Zipp assumed that the items were magical somehow and wasn’t entirely sure what was going on but Mistral seemed to sap energy from them.
After more searching we came to a large room with a forge and anvils in it. We managed to find this room only because Sznnit detected some moisture nearby. A quick search of the room revealed that there wasn’t much in it. Mistral still walked around touching everything and I was really starting to get annoyed at how disrespectful she was being. These items have been here for several thousand years and the untouched history was fascinating to me. Mistral was really starting to get on my nerves because she was trying to sap power from items and she was disturbing what people left here. There is a certain beauty in these halls, trap ridden as they are. I searched and studied this room for traces of anything valuable when Szinnit said “does this wall look different to you?” I walked over and studied it and couldn’t tell if it was anything. This was just a wall I had no idea what that lizard was talking about. I decided to investigate it further and when I went to touch the wall my hand went through it. Interesting I thought and realized Szinnit was correct I walked into this room and a blast of flames almost got me as I jumped out of the way. Once inside I could tell that this is where the master blacksmith kept all his items. Shortly after talking with Szinnit he joined me after disabling the trap. Szinnit is a mystery to me as he seems to have no real direction. I pondered for a moment about Szinnit wondering what adventure life was putting him through. Szinnit doesn’t seem to care for money though this seemed ok with me. Just means when we get back and his pockets are full I can beat him in a high stakes games of dice.

As I stood there a moment pondering over this room and Szinnit Zipp and Mistral came into the room. Mistral grew bright eyed and moved forward into this room. I can only assume she was going to try and touch items in this room as well. Her need to touch items before we could inspect them was really starting to piss me off. Siznnit blocked her path and told her that she wouldn’t be allowed to touch anything in this room. Zipp slipped past them both and started grabbing every item he could see and putting it in a bag. I quickly helped him as this room must have contained great treasures. Siznnit and Mistral had some sort of scuff and Mistral managed to slip by. She ran to the nearest object only to be blocked again by Szinnit. She then turned to Zipp and ran at the items near him. Zipp tried to keep a peculiar helmet away from her but he wasn’t able to pull it from her grasp. She grabbed the helmet and a bright purple light went from the helmet to her hands. I have had enough of her nonsense and disrespect to the group and to this ancient place. Something needed to be done to stop her otherwise she would just continue without listening to reason. I readied my flail and bashed her over the head. If she wouldn’t listen to logic then I was going to try the brute force approach.

Zipp really disliked my action which I found odd. This is the first time Zipp has really shown me that he is more than just some crook that disguises himself so that he can remain an unknown face. I knew Zipp wouldn’t understand why I did what I did. I don’t think Zipp cares much about this place other than burning it to the ground. Szinnit doesn’t seem to show any emotions over the situation well any more or less than he usually does. After we collected all the items in the room Zipp managed to wake up Mistral. I expected retaliation from her so I kept my weapon and shield at the ready. After a moment she just left and the rest of the group went back to the surface level to rest for the night. During my time on the night watch I struggled a bit with what I had just done. Attacking someone like that wasn’t exactly honorable though being a lieutenant in the war for 15 years I had been put through much worse. I know if someone were to act selfish like that in the heat of battle my own allies wouldn’t have hesitated to kill much less knock them out. If she had acted that way she could have been deemed a traitor by standards that I am use to. With these thoughts I decided that knocking her unconscious while not the best solution, it wasn’t the worst solution either.

With that my mind turned to my father and what his plans were. We had not known who our employer was only that he had the ability to find a group with the appropriate skill set. I thought to myself for a moment if he could be involved somehow. My thoughts were interrupted by Szinnit rolling over and slapping his tail into Zipp’s bedroll. Zipp responded with some comment about “by fire be purged” even though he was still sleeping. Mistral I assumed felt insecure about what happened as she went and slept somewhere else in the city. Hours had passed now and Zipp was the first one up then shortly after Szinnit got up and looked around for Mistral. I stayed behind a moment to finish packing up the things and cover the fire. After we regrouped we went down to the 3rd level the first thing we encountered was a massive pile of rocks. I thought to myself about how easily the group was caught by these. Zipp didn’t want to be here after he found what was in the first room. Mistral claimed they were holy items but according to Zipp they were used to make undead. None of this mattered to me because if it died once by my hands I can kill it again.

Zipp rushed the group through this level so that he could get down and burn those demon books…again I thought to myself he is more concerned about burning the demon books than burning the actual demon…if that’s what it really is. We quickly found a library and after searching the room collected some more journals. Mistral was still going around touching things and it still bothered me. I cared less about these items because they were just a bunch of books no different than I use to read back home.

A hidden bookcase was found and it lead to another library with similar books. We searched again and collected a few more items. After this Zipp seemed convinced that we had found everything that we were looking for and he left followed by Szinnit. I knew this level still had rooms and I was going to explore them. I took off the other way and fell into a pit trap. This was the first trap I had been caught by luckily it was just sandstone and I had my stone smith tools. I could get out of here with some effort. Mistral saw and went to get the others to help. After a short time Zipp had used my dragon head to get the doors open. Then a rope followed and I managed to get pulled back up. Again Zipp and Szinnit left but I was determined that this other way was faster. I took off in the other direction again hoping to beat those two. After a short walk I sprung another trap this time spikes fell from the ceiling. It pierced through my armor and pinned me but I was otherwise unharmed. Mistral managed to disable the trap even though she was still angry about the night before. It was good to see that she is capable of being honorable in a pinch.

After I was free I went through a door and Zipp and Szinnit were standing right in front of me. We regrouped and went back down to the next area. My only mission at this point was to kill whatever was behind that wall. Zipp took off to some other room saying about how he was going to burn those books about evil demons. I fail to see how books are going to do harm to anyone. Szinnit came with me and Mistral stayed with Zipp. Once we arrived at this room the voice started talking to us again. I didn’t care much but Szinnit had a small conversation with the voice. After the conversation we found the lever and opened the door. I took a few steps back in case of a preemptive attack. Once the door was lowered a floating ball with many eyes came out. Szinnit was ready to kill as was I. This being had some very powerful attacks that I was not use to and Szinnit didn’t seem to notice but this power charred parts of my armor. It didn’t matter how powerful this creature was Szinnit and I were going to take it down. I managed to land several solid blows to it as did Szinnit. Mistral arrived after we beat up on this creature though she refused to help at all. This did not help her situation with me. She said that Zipp was on his way through while Szinnit and I were in the heat of battle.

We managed to kill this beast only it disappeared and turned into a pile of eye-stalks. Zipp arrived and saw the aftermath only to be annoyed about what we had done. We entered the library and took any journals we could find. Zipp started burning books after we did our search and Mistral kept touching everything. This whole situation was getting on my nerves so I left telling Szinnit that I was going to finish exploring the upper level. He agreed and came with me and once we were up there we immediately ran into a room with undead creatures in it. Shortly after finding another room with ghouls in it we moved to a room with an more powerful undead creature that beat up on Szinnit a little bit. This angered me slightly so I smacked it hard with my flail to get its attention. Szinnit did the killing blow as Zipp and Mistral arrived. Szinnit and I were a bit exhausted after all the fighting. We explored the last room Szinnit said he would go in even though the door was clearly some sort of spring loaded trap. He was locked in and the group tried to get him out by breaking down the door. It took a few minutes but we managed to get him out. When he came out of the room he was trying to swim in very shallow water. What an odd person Szinnit is I thought to myself. Zipp immediately went to the libraries on this level and started burning them. We all helped so he would be down here for another hour as he was burning these books one at a time. We arrived back and slept for the night in the city again only to make our journey across the desert to the port where we would be heading back.

Grumblings of a Mad Lizard

The Empty City

After defeating the tomb motes and setting up a reasonable place to sleep within the city center things looked to be fairly calm. Little did I know that the next few hours would be the biggest fight I’ve ever experienced. I damn near killed the dwarf for snoring so loud, and the tiefling kept giggling in his sleep. The fight wasn’t with monsters that came upon us, but it was with myself to keep from crushing the airways of two of my companions. Sleep finally came but it was not easy.

Other than that nothing much to report but the moaning of the undead somewhere off in the distance.

Waking up we began to explore the city’s caves, taking the one to the right. While walking along the buildings I began to smell something odd, it led me into a building where a mold had began to take over. The mushrooms attached to this mold also had flowers butting out that were in full bloom. This helped my mood, seeing that even in this sand trap of a hell, flowers were able to live. This gave me hope for our journey.

Continuing down the path we began to see bones. I figured them to be remnants of adventurers past. They were an eyesore to behold, and I was kind of hoping that one day the fire from the skies would burn them away. None of this was voiced of course. I like to brood in private, and I would hate for my companions to be alienated by some of my desires. Upon seeing something wrapped around the bones, the mischievous Tiefling Zipp thought it would be a good idea to pick the dead man’s clothes up. This would be a brilliant idea…think about it…they couldn’t have smelled all that well, they had been there for years, and from the looks of it there wasn’t even any pockets so treasure within them would have been left somewhere else, yet he still chose to pick them up. These pants immediately became animated, reaching up and started to strangle the poor idiot. I tried to swipe at them, but to no avail. This led Mistral Kaledin over to help rid him of the article. Once it was put down the dwarf Travok could be seen laughing to himself, with what I would assume would have been the same thoughts I was harboring. The path continued down to a river that seemed to be the water source of the city, more or less a dead end. We turned around from here to enter the other tunnel we saw on the opposite side of the city…That’s what we get for following a Tiefling.

Upon entering the other side of the city we went through a large hallway, emptying out through giant double doors into a courtyard. This was obviously a house that was built after the main city, but maybe by a thousand years. Still just as old and decrepit as any area that we had been in so far, and just as looted as well. Searching the house led us to find nothing, after a few short conversations the Tiefling and I began to search out some type of mausoleum. He searched the surrounding area while I went back out into the city. The dwarf had been right behind me until he wasn’t anymore, yet I didn’t care. I enjoyed spending a few moments in this dusty dirt hole of a city by myself. I climbed up to the top of the city center and looked for a building that might be able to hold something so big. I found this near the entrance of the city, so I headed in that direction. After reaching the front gates I promptly sat down and waited for my compatriots to find me before we searched the area. I was admiring the craftsmanship of the poor bastards that lived in the city previously. It must have taken them a long time to build all these buildings, too bad none of them were here any more to enjoy the dried fruits of their labor.

The mausoleum was even less fortuitous than the house. With the exception that Zipp happened to shake down some dead bodies for a few shards. He handed me some money that made me feel dirty to hold, but no matter. We had shown back up to the house to see the dwarf making marks on the walls. After he made a snarky comment to the Tiefling I saw him place money back in his pocket and thought it would be a good time to rid myself of the dead money anyways, so I handed my share to the dwarf.

The Dwarf snidely explained that he had found a hollow spot in the entry wall so we began to dig our way in. This led to a marble door that was opened by a soft spot in the Sand Stone. This opened up to a walkway leading down into a basement four levels deep. From what we could tell most of the first level was riddled with traps and alchemist supplies. It was there that I encountered my first few traps. After watching my companions almost lose limbs from blades being sprung, I head out into the hall, away from all the dangerous doors. Eventually I saw Mistral Kaledin and Zipp walking down the hall. I slunk out of site to avoid detection. They turned down a corridor before they got to me, as I waited for them to return I heard a small cry of pain, so I rushed to join them. Two steps towards the corner and the next thing I knew I was opening my eyes with a splitting headache. Apparently I triggered a trap that had falling rocks and they landed directly on top of me, much like a well placed trap should. Luckily I was not alone and my friends returned to help me out of my predicament. There wasn’t much to be found on this floor other than a few alchemical supplies here and there except the library. It was interesting to find a library among the maze like passageways of the first floor. Upon entering this library two suits of armor came to life and began to attack us. This was not the strangest thing to happen. What was strange was what happened when Mistral Kaledin began glowing purple and one of the suits fell down after she slid between it’s legs touching it. This was different that anything I’d ever seen. Next she told me to move from between her and the other suit when she shot something towards the other suit and this one blew up into smoke and ash. After all of this she emitted a strong burst of light that lit the room purple. It seems that she too is holding something back from the group. What she is I don’t know but what she can do makes me weary to stay around her. In this library we found four journals that seemed nothing special to me. Zipp put them in the bag none the less. Better safe than sorry.

We left here and headed to the bottom floor of this area. Deciding it would work best if we worked our way up. Upon reaching the bottom floor and exploring a bit we found a room that was like none I have ever seen. The most intriguing part was the silver circle in the middle of the room. It was told to me that the room was used for summoning, most likely demons. I didn’t think much of the room, magic has never intrigued me. Zipp and Mistral Kaledin left the room to search elsewhere. As I watched the Travok search the walls. He seems to like doing this, I can’t blame him, we found this area because of him. It still seems silly to me, watching him tap the walls and listen as if he was trying to hear a baby in a womb. Suddenly he disappeared and this was my cue to follow him. I was curious as to what had happened. After pressing on the wall myself I too disappeared. I called began pounding on the wall trying to get back to where I was. I noticed the dwarf wasn’t as worried as I was about the situation as he cautiously went down the left hallway. Eventually both of the other two made it on the other side of the wall and we headed off in the direction of the dwarf. We found him studying what looked like to be a trip plate. The Tiefling stepped past him through the door, and I followed it led us into what looked like a food storage and down to yet another hidden door that led us back into the room with a silver circle. Zipp stayed, and I went back to find the others. Upon my return I saw the floor plate removed, and Travok stuck inside a cage that was obviously the second part of the trap. He began to try and remove himself from the cage and I continued the other way down the hallway from the hidden swivel door. This led me to a library, so I grabbed the others. This is when the Tiefling began to get a little shaken. The books he declared were worthless and that we should leave them there. As we turned to leave I slipped one into my pack, it looked valuable and no spineless Tiefling would tell me different. The next door led into a room where random creatures had been mummified or wrapped and preserved. Travok thought it wise to take a white dragon head with us, but Zipp wouldn’t let him put it in the bag of holding unless he carried it around for at least an hour. Why Travok didn’t just make a dent in the Tieflings head and take the bag is beyond me, I would have thought it amusing. Upon reaching the last door Zipp went to open the door and his carelessness almost cost him his hand. This room had two large statues and in between them was a set of empty shelves. Zipp went to investigate and this is where he turned from shaken to stirred. He promptly told us that we needed to go, this place was extremely dangerous and he turned tail and ran. It was the strangest thing. Mistral Kaledin soon followed, leaving Travok and myself bewildered at their actions. Asking aloud what was going on I recieved an answer. A weird voice entered my head telling me that they wanted to meet me. This was weird, I’ve never had something speak to me in that manner. Actually a bit annoying as I realized I wouldn’t be able to shut it up if I wanted to. I began to leave and the dwarf followed, upon reaching the second to last level we heard a large crash and went to investigate. We found Mistral Kaledin under a pile of rocks uncovered her and I gave her a health potion as to which she told me to shove it. I restrained myself from biting her head and left her there to struggle out of the rest of the wreckage. The party regrouped outside the entrance of this tunnel, where the spineless Tiefling promptly closed the door behind us.

I don’t think we have the journal we need, and I know that there are more places to search down there. Whether they follow me or not, I’m going back.

The beginning

So it begins. After returning to Xelona from my last robbery I was quickly contacted by an individual with whom I had not met before. Shadok Trin is an agent of the city who specializes in finding adventurers for individuals with large pockets. I was gathered alongside a lizardman named Szinnit. Szinnit comes from a farm land and what he’s doing in this town is currently unknown to myself. Perhaps he is simply desiring more gold or pursuing a dream or maybe he’s just looking for new plants for his farm… I’m not sure but I do hope he opens up more to the group. Travok is a dwarf who seems to be angry almost all the time. He spends his spare time with dice and can be found gambling at rather obnoxious times of the day. He also seems to be very quiet around me. It might have something to do with the fact that I used an elf disguise to meet with them all at first… Surely they can’t blame me for being safe. No matter his attitude he certainly seems like a tough son of a bitch. I don’t think I’ve seen his armor pierced once. Finally there is Mistrel… At least that’s what she says her name is. She seems to distrust the group the most. While the other adventurers seem to have some sort of specialty or focus Mistrel has yet to reveal any particular abilities at this point. I have a feeling there’s some magic in there but why she’s hiding it is unknown. I could also be completely wrong and maybe she’s just a simple archer.

After we embarked on the airship we quickly made our way to the Drummond Fragment which is home to House Wexin a proud ally to my own House Quade. Mistrel appears to follow house Wexin as a half-elf but I’m not sure how well known she is. After landing we headed south towards Ekalaka. During our journey we were attacked by a small group of some sort of fish folk. They were easily dispatched and we made our way all the way to Ekalaka. There we aided the small town with a slight undead problem. The town seemed thankful but it also not too concerned about the idea of undead. We moved further south to the entrance of the city of Orphiem where we were tasked with returning a mage’s old tome. After braving a storm of raining fire we found shelter in the ancient stone city. Before we began our search for the tomb we ran across more undead. We have since rested. I only pray that Amaris watches over us. There are secrets deep in this city that I’m not sure we are ready to unleash.